Martina Hynan is a socially engaged artist, curator, birth activist and researcher based in Ennis, Co. Clare.
For more than 20 years her social practice has focused on women’s lives, with a particular focus on their experiences of childbirth.
She is currently a Galway Doctoral Scholar with the Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway and her research is a social art practice-with-research project which explores our changing relationship with birthplace over time. This is particularly poignant for people living in Co. Clare because there have been no maternity services here for over 30 years.
In this new work she explores our relationship with place, our sense of place, and our connection with place. This interdisciplinary project engages with the complex intersection of environmental humanities and reproductive justice. The emerging work shares her growing awareness of the importance of place, and explores what ecologies of place are and might become.
Her work is moving towards an eco-social art practice. As part of this research her work includes short films, site related artwork and community engagement. She welcomes the opportunity to work collaboratively with community groups and fellow artists, particularly those interested in place, eco-social practice and women’s lived experiences.